Cruise with me, baby

I have for years, in fact. Ever since the days of The Love Boat, I’ve dreamt of boarding a huge ocean liner and cruising to Puerto Vallarta or Cancun or some other exotic locale. I’ve imagined laying on a chaise, sunning myself in the middle of the ocean, and taking a break by the pool or eating at the Captain’s table.

And of course, getting served drinks by Isaac, meeting Gopher and Julie and Doc Bricker.

But it’s not the 70s anymore, and those Love Boats of days gone by have given way to enormous cities on the sea– with everything you could possibly want: Shopping, shows, activities, and of course, other interesting passengers.

And of course, for the gay man in your life (a/k/a: me), there are now gay cruises.

Now I know what you may be thinking. “Every day is a gay cruise.”

True as that may be, it’s quite different when you’re on a huge ship in the middle of the ocean with thousands of other gay men (and a few lesbians to boot).

So when the opportunity arose to go on one of these fabulous forays, I jumped at the chance.

Tentatively.

After all, nothing in this world comes cheap– and cruises cost upwards of $1,200 just for starters.

The cruise my friends are going on is an Atlantis Cruise upon a brand-new Royal Carribean liner called “Freedom of the Seas.” The cruise will be January 28 – February 4, 2007, but in order to participate, I have to join NOW.

That’s where the hard part comes in.

I need to make a $500 deposit. That kind of change doesn’t come easy to someone who needs to pay rent, utilities, bills, and other fun stuff like that. And I’d love to charge it to a credit card and get it all over with, but I don’t have enough room for that kind of charge on any of my cards. My bad.

The other problem is, I need to find a roommate– and I haven’t even given it a moment’s thought yet.

And the FINAL problem is… the cruise is booking up FAST. There aren’t too many of the lesser-expensive rooms left– which means if I don’t act soon, I may miss out anyway.
So I’m in quite a pickle. I really REALLY want to go on this cruise. But the numbers, the factors, and the cards in general are just not stacking up the way I’d hoped.

In a couple weeks, I will be celebrating my fifth year at my current job. At that time I will be getting a nice bonus. My initial plan was to use that bonus to pay my down payment on my cruise.

So I’m gonna wait. If I can still book the cruise when I get that money, I’m going. If not, I guess I’ll wait for the next opportunity.